the legacy of herbert bayer: recent gifts and loans to the aspen institute

7/22/2019 The Legacy of Herbert Bayer: Recent Gifts and Loans to the Aspen Institute

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r e c e n t g i f t s a n d l o a n s t o t h e A s p e n I n s t i t u t e

the legacy of herbert bayer


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This publicaon has been produced in conjuncon with the exhibion

The Legacy of Herbert Bayer:

Recent Gis and Loans to the Aspen Instute,

curated by David Floria and presented in the Resnick Gallery,

Doerr-Hosier Center, The Aspen Instute, Aspen, Colorado.Opening December 29, 2013

Cover photo: Leinie Schilling Bard,Herbert Bayer, 1983 (#1)

Opposite photo: Ferenc Berko, The Aspen Instute and Music Tent, 1965

Photo courtesy of BERKO Photo (#2)

Inside back cover: Herbert Bayer, deposion, 1940 (#33)

Back cover: Herbert Bayer, landscape, 1982 (#34)

Printed in an edion of 1,000


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r e c e n t g i f t s a n d l o a n s t o t h e A s p e n I n s t i t u t ethe legacy of herbert bayer

essay by david floria and lissa ballinger

biographical background by bernard jazzar

The Aspen Instute and Music Tent,1965 (#2)


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belle nuit geometrique, 1978/76 (#3)


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foreword

Te Legacy of Herbert Bayer: Recent Gifts and Loans to theAspen Institute signals a new focus in the visual art pro-

gramming of the Aspen Institute. Te exhibition formal-izes the commitment to the collection, study, appreciation,and preservation of the work of this master artist, acknowl-edging his seminal contribution to the Institute.

It is the third in a series of exhibitions concerningHerbert Bayer in the Resnick Gallery of the Doerr-Hosier Center. Te first two exhibitions, expertly curatedby Bernard Jazzar, curator of the Lynda and StewartResnick Collection, examined specific periods and bod-ies of work during Bayers career.

Tis latest exhibition offers a broad perspective, survey-ing Bayers lifework. It is a retrospective, highlightinga variety of media, including paintings, sculptures,tapestries, photographs, graphics, advertisements, and ce-ramics, that have been donated or loaned to the Institute

from private collections. Bayer diligently adhered to theethos of the Bauhaus movement throughout his artisticcareer. He believed in the equality of all arts; there wasno delineation between applied art, craft, and fine art.

Tis exhibition clearly illustrates his commitment toBauhaus ideals by presenting a diverse selection from his

oeuvre. While this exhibition is a permanent installation,it will evolve as temporary loans are replaced by gifts andnew loans.

acknowledgments

We are grateful for the participation, insight, and gener-osity of the many donors and lenders for this exhibition:Leinie Schilling Bard, Britt Bayer, Jan and Robert Blaich,Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy, Richard Carter,Paula and Jim Crown, Virginia Ford, John Gilmore, Janand Ronald Greenberg, eresa and Paul Harbaugh, PaulHobson, Ann and Ed Hudson, Soledad and RobertHurst, Georgia Laudner, Mirte Mallory and the BerkoEstate, Gail and Alec Merriam, Ann and Bill Nitze,Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Miranda ownsend andJonathan Bayer, Jennifer and Peter Waanders, JamieWhite and Andrew Sirotnak, Jill A. Wiltse and H. KirkBrown III, King Woodward, and Paula Zurcher.

We are indebted to Hugo Anderson and John Schaefer

for the loan of their significant Bayer poster collection

exhibited in the Paepcke Gallery in the Walter PaepckeMemorial Building.

Bernard Jazzar was invaluable in his support and encour-agement. His prior Herbert Bayer exhibitions and exten-sive knowledge of the artist were a tremendous resource.

It was a pleasure working with everyone on this truly

collaborative endeavor. We look forward to continuingour friendship and professional relationship in celebra-tion of Herbert Bayer.

Melva Bucksbaum and Lynda ResnickAspen Meadows Art Advisory Committee Co-Chairs

Walter Isaacson

President and CEO, the Aspen Institute

arculated wall for 1968 olympics (#4)


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fotomontagen: self portrait,1932/5 (#5) fotomontagen: lonely metropolitan,1932/13 (#6)


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the legacy of herbert bayer

Te legacy of Herbert Bayer is manifold, includingmajor contributions in typography, photography, graphic

design, corporate design, exhibition design, earthworks,painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Te artist was aninnovator in many of these genres. Troughout his life,he pursued projects that challenged and expanded hiscreative and professional abilities.

Bayers significant contributions to fine art and designin the 20th century were determined by his involvementwith the Bauhaus, both as a student and a master, from

1921 to 1928. Te Bauhaus was founded in 1919 byWalter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, as a modernistart school emphasizing the equality of all the visual arts.Te seven years that Bayer spent there defined his wayof life and work and a design philosophy suitable fordealing with the problems of the contemporary artist.1He adhered rigorously to the design ideology he absorbedduring his time as a student of the Bauhaus, where hismentor, Wassily Kandinsky, especially influenced him.While teaching at the Bauhaus, he created his universalalphabet, consisting of sans-serif lowercase letters. Tisinnovation was his greatest contribution to the field oftypography, and was also consistent with his overarchingphilosophy of visually functional graphic design.

Determined to turn theory into practical application,

Bayer, at the age of 28, left the Bauhaus and beganworking in various artistic directions and media inBerlin, but primarily in graphic design.

Notably, he created two bodies of photographic works,photomontagen (1931-1932, 1959) andfotoplastiken(1936), which remain today as important works in thecanon of fine art photography. In Berlin, Bayer was ex-posed to other art movements, such as surrealism, Dada,and the Paris avant-garde, which greatly influenced hiswork and enlarged his worldview.

He immigrated to the United States in 1938 andwas hired by the Museum of Modern Art to design acomprehensive Bauhaus exhibition. It was inventive and

controversial, as well as critically acclaimed. Te exhib-its design attracted the attention of visionary Chicago

industrialist Walter Paepcke, president of ContainerCorporation of America (CCA). Bayer was hired asa consultant to the corporation, working primarily onadvertising and graphic design projects. In 1956, he waspromoted to chairman of the Department of Design,where he was responsible for the corporations entireaesthetic environment, including: graphic design, ad-vertising, marketing, industrial design, architecture, and

interiors his first foray into the concept of creating atotal corporate environment.

As a result of his relationship with Paepcke, Bayer pio-neered the concept of collaboration between the artist anda corporation. Teir shared vision of a symbiotic relation-ship between corporate culture and an aesthetic philoso-phy was Bayers realization of the true Bauhaus credo.

During his tenure at CCA, Bayer designed and edit-ed the extraordinary world geo-graphic atlas, publishedin 1953. Tis graphically focused view of the postwarworld concentrated more on pictorial impact than on thetextual information. Bayer considered the atlas, publishedby CCA as a gift for business colleagues, to be one of hisgreatest achievements.

In 1946, Paepcke offered Bayer a unique opportunity toreturn to his beloved mountain environment, and moveto Aspen, Colorado, to help Paepcke create a culturalutopia. Tough his primary responsibility was the plan-ning, landscape design, and architecture of the campus ofthe Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies, he was alsovery involved with the rejuvenation of the town of Aspen.

Paepckes vision for the Institute was to create a corpo-rate retreat to encourage executives to convene, sharegreat ideas and cultural values, and nurture their mind,body, and spirit. Tis Aspen idea echoes Bayers notionof the artists responsibility to imbue their work withhead, heart, and hand. 2

1Arthur A. Cohen. Herbert Bayer, Te Complete Work(Cambridge, MA: Te MI Press, 1984), Foreward2Cohen, Foreward


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fnf, 1922/8 (#7) greek prole, 1934 (#8)

Our Allies Need Eggs,c. 1940 (#9)

Aspen Tourism Poster,c. 1948 (#10)


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Bayers legacy can be viewed today by walking thecampus site and seeing the many buildings of whichhe was the designer, including: Te Walter PaepckeMemorial Building, the Koch building (which featureshis 1952 Sgraffito Wall Mural), the Resnick-MalekHealth Center, the Aspen Meadows Reception Center,and the original guest houses. Bayer also created severalsculptural earthworks on campus groundbreakingbecause they preceded the earthwork movementby nearly a decade. Examples includegrass mound,marble gardenandAnderson Park. Te interplay ofthe earthworks and the buildings creates a unifiedenvironment. Bayer wrote: I am not so much concernedwith the individual work of art, as with the total shapeand content of the human scene. 3

Bayer considered his work in Aspen as his Gesamt-kunstwerk, the culmination of his lifetime pursuit.Creating this unified environment allowed him to gobeyond the creation of a corporate identity and expandto building a humanistic community. As befitting the

last surviving Bauhaus master, Bayers greatest legacy isthe cumulative total of his lifework, which is realized onthe Institutes campus.

Although Bayers work is not limited to any single mediaor style, he always considered himself primarily a painter.

His post-Bauhaus years in Berlin afforded him an oppor-tunity to continue to explore painting. Trough his work,he made a personal stylistic contribution to modernistpainting that was largely unaffected by the vagaries of theparticular trends of the day. His painting developed as hisinfluences evolved. His early work was primarily water-color landscapes. His painting in the late 1920s and 30sreflected his influences from surrealism and photography.

In the 1940s, while living in New York City and periodi-cally escaping to the mountains of Vermont, he returnedto more atmospheric and geographically oriented sub-jects, including a series he called Convolutions.

Chromatics, his next series, was a significant departurefrom his biomorphic work, with a return to geometric ab-straction and an emphasis on a vibrantly colorful palette.

In 1975, he moved from Aspen to Montecito, California,for health reasons. His career culminated with theAn-thologies, a critically acclaimed body of work that unifiesand synthesizes his entire oeuvre.

David Floria, Curator

Lissa Ballinger, Art Registrar

world geo-graphic atlas,1953 (#11)Sgrato Wall Mural, 1953 (#12)

3Bayer, Herbert. herbert bayer, painter, designer, architect(New York: Reinhold, 1967), p. 112


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linear structure with blue square,1961/4 (#13)


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memorial sculpture, c. 1963 (#14)Untled, 1960 (#15)


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lubeck, 1921 (#16)

bird with egg, 1928/21 (# 17)


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verdure,1950 (#18)

horizontal ow,1954 (#19)


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what makes the weather, 1942/2 (#20)

homage to kairouan,1954/56 (#21)


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geometry of an illusionist, 1978/75 (#22)


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growing in size,1971/49 (#23)

transparency I,1971/45 (#24)


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tangier 2, 1969/33 (#25)

Untled,c 1970 (#26)


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color progression with lines, 1973 (#27)


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stellaris,1977 (#29)

wall sculpture,1937/3 (#28)


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formaon, 1951 (#31)

TAC Rosenthal studio-line (The Architects Collaborave) Tea set Bauhaus

Hommage (teapot, creamer, sugar), 1979 (#32)

implements on a wall,1962 (#30)


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biographical background

Born in 1900 in Haag am Hausruck, Austria, a smallmountainous village northeast of Salzburg, Bayer

developed an abiding love of nature at an early age. Heoften accompanied his father, a tax revenue officer, onhis walks to remote villages to collect taxes. While hisfather conducted business, the young Bayer exploredthe outdoors and relished all the natural wonders heencountered. In school he also enjoyed his courses inmathematics and geometry. As he recounted years laterto his studio assistant, Paul Hobson, he treasured his

books related to these subjects. According to Hobson, hewas always referring to various geometry texts, especiallywhile working on theAnthologypaintings during the lastdecade of his life. Some of these paintings bear the titleGeometry Homework.

Due to his fathers death in 1917, Bayers dream ofattending the art academy ended and he had to seekemployment. After apprenticing with architects in Linz

and Darmstadt, Bayer applied to and was accepted atthe Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany in 1921. Tere he metVasily Kandinsky who was to remain Bayers mentor forthe rest of his life. In 1925 Bayer became a master at thenew Bauhaus school in Dessau where he taught typogra-phy and what he termed visual communication. Dissatis-fied with teaching, he moved to Berlin in 1928 where heset up a design studio. Tere he created visually-stunning

advertisements that were featured in prestigious maga-zines, such as Vogue,and on covers for the monthly peri-odical Die neue Linie.Bayer was also an innovator in thefield of exhibition design. Because of his reputation, hewas invited in 1938 to design the seminal exhibition Bau-haus 1919-1928 for the Museum of Modern Art in NewYork. World War II and family circumstances causedhim to leave Europe and settle in the United States. woinfluential people entered his life in the 1940s: JoellaHaweis Levy, who divorced her husband, Julian Levy, in1942 and married Bayer, and, in 1945, Walter Paepcke,the president of the Container Corporation of America.Paepcke, who became a lifelong friend and patron ofBayer, convinced the artist and his wife to move to Aspenin 1946 where they helped him transform an abandoned

silver mining town into one of the worlds most populardestinations for leisure and culture. What Walter Paepcke

began in 1949 as a venue in which to celebrate one of theworlds most influential thinkers, Johann Wolfgang vonGoethe, led in 1950 to the creation, with Bayers help, ofthe Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. For nearlythirty years, Aspen was Bayers home. While there hecreated work in multiple disciplines ranging from archi-tecture, graphic design, corporate identities, paintings,and sculpture, to earthworks. Rarely has a single individ-

ual contributed to so many disciplines at such a highlycreative level. Among the most extraordinary productsof this period is the world geo-graphic atlaswhich Bayerdesigned and edited for the Container Corporation ofAmerica in 1953. According to Dr. Ian Winspur, whowas Bayers friend and surgeon in Santa Barbara, Califor-nia, Bayer considered this volume a high point of his ca-reer. Bayer also met the founder and president of Atlantic

Richfield Company (ARCO), Robert O. Anderson,who would have a profound effect on the artists life andcareer as well. In 1966, Anderson hired Bayer as a designconsultant for his company. His work involved everythingfrom designing buildings, interiors, corporate graphics,furnishings, and tapestries for the various headquarters,as well as supplying the offices with art, including hisown pieces. After suffering two massive heart attacks in

1974, Bayer was forced to leave his beloved Aspen, andwith the help of Anderson, he settled in Montecito, nearSanta Barbara, in 1975. From this point on, he devotedthe majority of his creative output to hisAnthologyseries,which he began in 1976. Tis impressive body of workwas exhibited over the next several years at various venuesincluding the Marlborough Gallery in New York andLondon. In late 1982 his right hand was smashed when a

car hit him as he was walking on the street. After monthsof rehabilitation, Bayer brought theAnthologyseries tofruition and, for the remainder of his life, explored ideasbased on earlier themes. He died in 1985.

Bernard JazzarCurator of the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Collection

essay list


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essay list Height precedes width and depth

1.

Leinie Schilling Bard

Herbert Bayer,1983

Photograph

Gi of Leinie Schilling Bard

2.

Ferenc Berko

The Aspen Instute and

Music Tent,1965

Silver gelan print

Photo courtesy of

BERKO Photo

3.

Herbert Bayerbelle nuit geometrique,

1978/76

Acrylic and pencil on canvas

80 x 80 inches

Gi of

Lynda & Stewart Resnick

4.

Herbert Bayer

arculated wall for 1968

Olympics,c. 1965

Wood and Acrylic paint

(unique sculpture)

Maquee formonumental sculpture

8 x 4 x 4 inches

Collecon of Virginia Ford

5.

Herbert Bayer

fotomontagen: self portrait,1932/5

Gelan silver print

13 x 9 inches

Collecon of


6.

Herbert Bayer

fotomontagen: lonely met-

ropolitan, 1932/13

Gelan silver print

13 x 10 inches

Collecon of


7.

Herbert Bayer

fnf, 1922/8

Gouache and collage on paper

18 x 14 inches

Collecon of Jonathan Bayer

8.

Herbert Bayer

greek prole,1934

Tempera on silk and linen

17 3/8 x 12 3/8 inches

Collecon of

Teresa & Paul Harbaugh

9.

Herbert Bayer

Our Allies Need Eggs,c. 1940

Silkscreen poster backed

on linen

20 x 29 inches

Collecon of Jamie White

and Andrew Sirotnak

10.

Herbert Bayer

Aspen Tourism Poster,c. 1948

40 x 30 inches

Collecon of

Soledad & Robert Hurst

11.

Herbert Bayer

world geo-graphic atlas

Chicago: Container Corpora-

on of America, 1953

Collecon of Richard Carter

12.

Ferenc Berko

Sgrato Wall Mural,1953

Silver gelan print

Photo courtesy ofBERKO Photo

13.

Herbert Bayer

linear structure with blue

square,1961/4

Liquitex on canvas

60 x 50 inches

Collecon of

Georgia Laudner

14.

Herbert Bayer

memorial sculpture, c. 1963

Wood and painted steel

Unique sculpture

Maquee for monumental

sculpture

13 x 5 x 5 inches

Collecon of Virginia Ford

15.

Herbert Bayer

Untled, 1960

Collage with colored pencil

8 x 6 inches

Collecon of Jennifer and

Peter Waanders

16.

Herbert Bayer

lubeck, 1921

Watercolor

12 x 9 inches

Collecon of


17.

Herbert Bayer

bird with egg,1928/21

Collage with watercoloron paper

12 x 19 inches

Collecon of Bri Bayer

18.

Herbert Bayer

verdure, 1950

8 x 19 inches

Watercolor and gouache

on paper

Collecon of Jill A. Wiltse

and H. Kirk Brown III

19.

Herbert Bayer

horizontal ow, 1954

5 x 13 inchesWatercolor on paper

Collecon of Jill A. Wiltse

and H. Kirk Brown III

20.

Herbert Bayer

what makes the weather,

1942/2

Oil on canvas

18 x 22 inches


21.

Herbert Bayer

homage to kairouan,1954/56

Acrylic on canvas

11 x 10 inches


22.

Herbert Bayer

geometry of an illusionist,

1978/75

Acrylic and pencil on canvas

80 x 80 inches

Gi of

Jan & Ronald Greenberg

23.

Herbert Bayer

growing in size, 1971/49

Acrylic on paper

8 x 8 inches

Collecon of Jamie White &

Andrew Sirotnak

24.

Herbert Bayer

transparency I, 1971/45

Acrylic on paper

8 x 8 inches


Andrew Sirotnak

25.

Herbert Bayer

tangier 2,1969/33

Acrylic on paper

14 x 14 inches

Collecon of Richard Carter

26.

Herbert Bayer

Untled,c 1970

Screenprint on paper

19 x 20 inchesCollecon of King Woodward

27.

Herbert Bayer

color progression with lines,

1973

Tapestry handmade in

Puerto Rico

77 x 79 inches

Gi of Gail & Alec Merriam

28.

Herbert Bayer

wall sculpture, 1937/3

Wood and plascwood,

painted

13 x 19 inches


Andrew Sirotnak

29.

Herbert Bayer

stellaris,1977

Acrylic on paper

19 x 23 inches

Collecon of Ann & Bill Nitze

30.

Herbert Bayer

implements on a wall,1962

Watercolor on paper

12 x 19 inches

Collecon of


31.Herbert Bayer

formaon,1951

Oil on Canvas

24 x 30 inches

Collecon of

Paula & Jim Crown

32.

Herbert Bayer

TAC Rosenthal studio-line

(The Architects Collabora-

ve) Tea set Bauhaus Hom-

mage (teapot, creamer,

sugar), 1979

Porcelain


Andrew Sirotnak

33.

Herbert Bayer

deposion,1940/2Oil on canvas

36 x 42 inches

Collecon of Bri Bayer

34.

Herbert Bayer

landscape, 1982

Designed by Walter Gropius,

manufactured by Rosenthal

Studio-Line

Porcelain and polychrome

14 x 14 inches

Gi of Melva Bucksbaum &

Raymond Learsy

Photo credits:Robert Millman and

Todd Babos:cat. # 1,4,7,9,10,11,13,14,15,20,21,23,24,25,26,28,29,31,32,34


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deposion, 1940/2 (#33)


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the legacy of herbert bayer: recent gifts and loans to the aspen institute

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